Wireless communication systems can provide a number of different voice communication services, including interconnect voice communication services and dispatch voice communication services. Interconnect voice communication services are those that are provided by most wireless communication systems, and are commonly considered as full-duplex, circuit-switched communications. Dispatch communication services are provided in only some wireless communication systems, and are commonly referred to as push-to-talk or walkie-talkie calls due to the half-duplex nature of the calls.
Dispatch communication services have typically been provided only in private wireless networks. For many years wireless networks based on the iDEN standard were the only publicly-accessible wireless networks that provided both dispatch and interconnect communication services. Recently wireless networks based on other wireless communication standards have incorporated dispatch communication services in addition to interconnect communication services. These newer dispatch communication services are based on, for example, Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Push-to-Talk over Cellular (PoC) standards-based protocols or a proprietary protocol (e.g., Qualcomm's QChat™).